Vernon Syrette re-elected as Batchewana chief

Vernon "Champ" Syrette was returned early Sunday morning for a fourth consecutive term as Chief of Batchewana First Nation of Ojibways.

This time, he won by just one vote.

Elections for Chief and Council of Batchewana First Nation were held Friday and the results were announced at 12:20 a.m. Sunday following a carefully scrutinized 12-hour count.

Five candidates ran for chief and, in the last few hours of the count, Syrette was unofficially reported to be in the lead by five votes, then two, and finally won by one.

The runner up was Dean Sayers with 285 votes.

Syrette appeared calm and cool during the count and was well supported by family and friends who came out to await election results with him.

As they surrounded him for this victory picture early Sunday, his supporters shouted a cheer for "wins-by-one Syrette" and later teased him about liking the suspense.

This isn't the first time Syrette has won by one vote, some of his supporters said.

"It was really tense, but a lot of people came out," Syrette told SooToday.com.

"I believe this is the most [voters] we've had from our First Nation," he said.

Syrette said he wants to see a shared vision with the eight-member Council elected with him and that he has a big job ahead of him.

"There are a number of pressing issues," Syrette said.

"I'm hoping that we [Chief and Council] can come together with one agenda and move forward."

Harvey Bell came in third with 140 votes, followed by John Duke Corbiere at 84 and Angela Neveau with 67 votes.

Councillors elected

Gregory Agawa Bertha Beaulieu Robert Gary Gingras Margaret Lesage Stan McCoy Dan Sayers, Sr. Joe Tom Sayers Kevin Tegosh

Electoral officer ready to break a tie

"It was going to be a little harrowing if I had to break the tie," said Mel Jacobs, electoral officer.

Jacobs said he has had to break ties for Council members in the past but has not yet seen a tie in the case of candidates for chief.

"The electoral officer would have to decide before the election how he or she would break the tie," said Jacobs.

"In this case I had said that if there were people tied I would put their names in a box and draw one out. I would then cast a ballot to break the tie," he said.

Nearly 70 percent of in-community members vote

There were about 1,700 eligible voters, with 600 living in the three communities that comprise Batchewana First Nation of Ojibways.

A total of nearly 900 people voted.

About 1,100 ballots were sent out to band members living outside the three Batchewana communities whose addresses were known.

Almost 500 of those were returned and counted, said Jacobs.

Before official counting of ballots could begin, the ones returned by mail had to be opened and added to the box containing the ballots returned in person.

That process took about four hours so counting didn't get underway until 1 p.m., Jacobs said.

Jacobs said that the results are considered final because of the degree of scrutiny of the vote-counting process.